Tuesday, December 23, 2014

October, November, and December!

Hey everyone! Once again, I have been a slacker on the blog-front. We've had such a busy couple of months that now that we finally have some down time, neither of us feels like doing anything productive. This post is going to be a bit of a two-parter in order to keep it short and to give proper spotlight to some of the events. After the new year, I'll even have a third post to share with you! Hooray!

Without further adieu, let's get started!

Apartment Update:

We do still love our apartment, as I made it clear in my last post. However, we've discovered some new irritating quirks about it-- namely, our neighbor(s). We have discovered, through great pains, that our upstairs neighbor is very overweight and very heavy footed. There is only so much our complex is willing to do about the situation. Specifically, they want to move us to a top floor (third floor) unit in order to prevent the same thing from happening should we move to another first floor or even second floor unit, but I'm being stubborn about it because I don't think we should be punished when we aren't the ones causing the issue. I think that any other person who moves into the unit we're currently in would have the same problem, and I'm not willing to trudge up two flights of stairs for the next nine months. So we are suffering through our iron-footed neighbor, even though the noise is cutting into our sleep and into Patrick's work. The paintings on our wall rattle, as do the glasses in our kitchen cabinets, and we can tell where he is in the apartment at all times. It's terrible. I'm waiting for the day that plaster starts to fall from the ceiling and he just tumbles into our living room.

October:

October was CRAZY! There were eight Rocky Horror shows scheduled from October 4 through November 1. At the end of the month, we had shows three nights in a row-- one in a different state! The 4th was in Menlo Park, the 17th was in Menlo Park, the 18th was in Cloverdale, the 24th was in Pittsburg, the 25th in SF, the 30th in Reno, the 31st in SF, and the 1st in Menlo Park. Because of Patrick's work schedule, we were only able to make it to six of the eight shows, but it was a blast! I especially had fun doing the Pittsburg, Reno, and Halloween shows. I learned a new skill (doing spotlight), and in doing so I finally found a place on cast where I am particularly useful, because I am really bad at memorizing prop cues.

Our Pittsburg show even got its own article, which you can check out here. Claps to our amazing cast and especially our directors for getting through the craziest month most of us have ever experienced!

Spotlight selfie! I really just love this outfit. I wore it to at least three of the Rocktober shows.

Our Janet (Victoria) and Colombia (Diane) posing with their fans!

Our very own "age ambiguous dancing tree"!

YMCA

Patrick was a mouse (duh!) for Halloween! Actually, he was Karen as a mouse from Mean Girls. We spent weeks looking for the perfect dress, wig, and shoes so that he could look the part but not be as... revealing as the character was in the movie.

I did his makeup for the night, which I am incredibly proud of (it is screen accurate). He makes a real pretty woman, if I do say so myself!

I don't have any good photos of my Halloween costume on actual Halloween, however here it is a few weeks previously at our friends Mandy and Brook's Halloween party! Can you tell what I went as?

In the midst of Rocktober, Patrick and I were also travelling quite a bit. Lately he has been getting business in places that are reasonable distances away, which means that he can drive and I can go with him. In October we were in Burlingame (just a few miles from where we used to live, but too long of a drive for Patrick to have commuted every day), then we went home for a night, then drove straight to Vegas for a work-related convention, and then we drove straight from Vegas to Reno for the Rocky Reno show. From Reno we drove home and we finally got a short break (from work, not from Rocky, as we still had two more shows). Shortly after that, Patrick flew to Texas for work, and when he got home we went straight to Disneyland! Our Disney trip will be in a separate post because it really was magical. Probably the best trip we've ever had. Our Vegas trip will also be in a separate post because there is so much to include!

The view from our room in Reno

November:

Most of November was spent with me at home and Patrick travelling. Not a whole lot happened worth mention except for Thanksgiving. This year, even though it was just the two of us, I was determined to have a full Thanksgiving dinner like I would have had with my family in Michigan. So, Patrick let me cook for once, and I made a very successful Thanksgiving dinner. Having been the first time I've ever made an entire meal by myself, we were both really impressed with the job I did!

Our Menu:

Ham

Mashed Garlic Redskin Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole

Cranberry Sauce

Rolls

Pumpkin Pie (purchased from Safeway because it was a last minute item... Silly me, I thought having Sweet Potato Casserole was kind of the same thing, but someone complained)

December:

Shortly after Thanksgiving, I was hit with some news that I knew was coming but it took me by surprise all the same. My mother moved and all of my stuff was still at the old house, and when I called her and asked if she had gotten all of the things I had asked her to grab for me, she hadn't. I don't mean to say that I don't trust my mother, but if those things are the only things I have left back in Michigan, I wanted to make sure they got to a safe place before she moved out. So when I found out that she has to be out of our old house in very early January, I knew I had to go back to get my stuff and make sure the job was done myself. Only a week away from when I would fly home, I booked a plane ticket and started to pack. I was lucky to even get a ticket so close to the holidays, and had I not gone back when I did, I would have been travelling DURING the holidays, which would have actually been impossible as there were no flights left. And so I went back to Michigan on December 7 and returned to California on December 17 for a quick, pretty disappointing trip home (which I won't get into here). I did get to visit with a few people and some family and I got to go to the Detroit Zoo, but I'm hoping future trips will be better!

Ella is now five years old!

Christina is now eight!

Me and Zach's Corn Snake, Arbok

A tiny bird that flew into my grandparents' sliding glass door. He was quite dazed and needed some love. (P.S. Rest assured that most of these pictures are of animals, because I love them more than humans)

Seafood pasta, compliments of Chef Grandpa! I can still taste it, and it is so, so good.

Babcia! My favorite woman :) I love you!

Hatching butterflies at the Detroit Zoo! HOW COOL!

The most majestic animals on the face of the earth. Look at those beauties.

Obligatory hippo picture!

Coming Up:

Our outlook for the new year changes almost every day, it seems. Patrick's work schedule is never definite, and often he will be sent to any number of places at a moment's notice. We do know that we will be spending Christmas day together, and then Jackie and Dan will be coming over on Saturday and we will do Christmas with them. New Year's Eve will be spent with our Rocky family at our annual NYE Rocky show, but the coming months are really up in the air as for trips, travel, or events. Of course, we do look forward to spending as much time as possible together!